The Return of Rick Hunter
by ChaosValkyire
Summary: What would happen if Rick Hunter didn't go with the SDF-3?


He had been sitting there in that very alley, ever since they left. His mind was distorted with mental unrest, placing him on the brink of complete insanity. The loss of his friends had had an enormous effect on him. He had scavenged food, stealing it from people who walked down the street, stealing papers to learn about the REF mission.  
  
He was becoming more and more dismal each day, when he saw...her. She was average height with big puffy blonde hair. She was so familiar, the way she walked, the way her eyes moved. Everything. She looked into his filthy, half dead form, and smiled. Then he was sure. "Dana..." escaped his lips. She froze. "How...how did you...know my name?" She asked cautiously. "I knew your parents, they were my friends." He replied. Dana Sterling gasped, and her eyes widened. "Uncle...uncle...Rick?" She asked. Rick's mind exploded with pain. Thoughts, memories, and pain racked his mind. He gasped, and sunk to his knees. Dana reached out for him, and he collapsed.  
  
***  
  
When he awoke, he felt a stinging pain to his eyes, yet.it was familiar. "Help!" He cried out suddenly, and almost instantly, a cool cloth was pressed against his forehead. "Shh, you're safe, it's alright," came Dana's voice.  
  
Rick sat up, his back popping several times from not moving very much. Dana sat next to him, and he told her his story. He spoke of his first Veritech flight, all the way up to his wedding with Lisa. Then, he stopped, and stared at her. Dana told him as much as she could remember from her life. She told him of the Southern Cross, the Masters arrival. When Rick heard the line "Robotech Masters", he stood up suddenly, a look of concern on his face. The look of the battle hardened uncle that Dana once knew.  
  
"They must go." He said. He sat down again, and put his head in his hands. Dana moved over to the small hospital bed, and took his hand into hers. He began to weep, and she held him. She could almost feel the terrible pain and suffering, the mental anguish he had felt and endured, leaving him. It was as if he was being healed. After a while he drew back and went to sleep.  
  
***  
  
Dana stood up, and returned to the barracks to talk to her best friend, Bowie Grant, who also knew Rick. She had almost told him, when a loud alarm went blaring. **ATTENTION! ENEMY MECHA APPROACHING IN SECTOR 3, QUADRENT 7! ALL UNITS SCRAMBLE! SCRAMBLE** Dana and Bowie nodded, and leapt from the 13th ATAC's Division's lounge, and sprinted to the hanger. The squadron was suited and ready in two minutes. Dana mounted her hover tank, and ordered the squad to move out.  
  
***  
  
Rick awoke to blaring alarms, and screaming people. A seemingly ancient reaction that had been dormant for years, sleeping in his mind awoke. He leapt out of bed, and sprinted out of his room, knocking over anyone who tried to stop him.  
  
"I am coming!" He bellowed to himself. "I am coming my friend, and we shall stop them! AHAHAHAHAHA!" He raced down the street, running and running to his alley. He leapt over the wall that was the dead end of the alley, and revealed a secret control mechanism. He pressed a code, and he vanished. Rick landed in the ancient hanger he had built during the early stages of his depression.  
  
With a flick of his wrist, the lights came on, and in all its glory, the Skull One was revealed. The flight suit and "thinking cap" were in the cockpit. He slipped them on, and powered his fighter's engines. The street shook as the launch pad raised. It crashed through the street, and Rick prepared to launch. The boost deflector was raised, and Rick gunned it. The fighter roared forward, into the air.  
  
Rick could not remember feeling any better in his life. He rolled the VT, flipped it, and pulled all the maneuvers he could think of. Then, he was nearly killed. A missile streaked by him, smashing into a building. He had inadvertedly been dodging blasts from a Bioroid's disc pistol. More long forgotten instincts kicked in, and he squeezed the trigger. The four undercarriage lasers blasted out, melting the blue mecha into oblivion, all within the blink of an eye.  
  
Rick pulled the mode selector lever marked, "B" and felt his mecha begin to change, to...mechamorphisis. The towering Battleoid hovered in the air, and Rick froze. "What...next," he said aloud. He clicked on his radio, and heard her voice.  
  
"Dana," he said again. He touched the throttle, and the Battleoid took off. Rick didn't know where he was flying; he simply let his instincts tell him.  
  
***  
  
Dana knew she was going to die. The red Bioroid was after her, again, and the blues were weakening her. Her Battleoid was once again clipped by energy discs, and was thrown into the ground. She urged her mecha to raise the particle rifle, but the system was dead. She relaxed and closed her eyes.  
  
"Goodbye" she said. Dana waited for the cold kiss of death to touch her, but never felt it. Instead, she opened her eyes, and saw multiple blasts penetrate the red bioroid.  
  
"Wha...?" she mused. Then, her confusion turned to amazement, as an ancient  
  
VF-1S Valkyire Battleoid came into view, firing away.  
  
***  
  
Rick felt alive again. He squeezed the trigger again, and the gatling blazed away, depleted transuranic slugs smashing through armor, and destroying the red mecha that was about to finish the other strange battleoid. Rick turned, in search of new prey, and fired the head lasers, beckoning any challenger to come forth. Rick Hunter was back. 


End file.
